The Horned King

Greetings one and all, (Park Reviewed: Thusday 18th June 2015) It is almost a year since my review of Alton Towers and as many of you are aware they have had one of the worst starts to the season on record due to the dreadful incident on the Smiler. I have been sat on the Alton Towers face book page since the incident amazed and confused with the amount of small minded individuals pointing fingers at Ride safety and Alton Towers as a whole. Sick of the constant abuse and flame wars that were erupting all day long, I decided to head to the park and look at what was happening myself, free from the narrow minded and the over zealous media. (Kudos to all the staff at Alton Towers that are trawling through the masses of rude posts on there face book page and remaining helpful and professional). This review is designed to highlight the general atmosphere in the park over two weeks after the incident as well as the new procedures that have been put in place to prevent a travesty of this nature happening again. I would like to take a moment here to say that the results of the HSE investigation into the smiler have still not been released. Nobody, including the media, has every little detail relevant to the investigation. Also the future of the Smiler is still unknown. It could include closing, re-branding or re-opening as normal. Again, nothing has been confirmed. If you are here looking for an opportunity to criticise and belittle Alton Towers without being constructive you have come to the wrong place. As I go through the photo review I will be highlighting members of staff who are really making an effort and keeping spirits high. With this is mind let us continue our review. We arrived at the park for opening at 10.00am. One look at the car park confirmed my thoughts. The park was going to be dead. I knew that a Thursday before all the schools finished for the summer would normally be quiet, but I honestly thought in light of recent events it would be even quieter. Oh, how wrong I was. (Apparently other people don't get up as early in the morning as I do!) It was nice to see that coach parties from local schools had not been deterred as well as other thrill seekers from across the country. We took the monorail from the car park to the main entrance. They were running the monorails at full capacity. I believe they only had 2-3 on the track, but they were full. We joined the steady flow of people heading into the park and began exploring. I am really impressed with how honest Alton Towers/Merlin Entertainments has been regarding this incident. They have been very upfront and professional. At no point have they hidden away and they accepted responsibility for it in record time. We took a brisk walk down Towers Street. Heading over towards the Dark Forest. Half way down Towers Street we ran into these two characters! Very entertaining! Keep up the good work guys! I quickly took this obligatory shot of the towers across the lake as we headed onwards. The grounds are very well kept considering how large they are. The general upkeep of the park was pretty impressive. I will go more into detail about this later. We bypassed Mutiny Bay for now and headed past Battle Galleons. For those who have never been to Alton Towers, Battle Galleons is a heavily themed Mack Rides Splash Battle. It consists of boats that follow a flume and allow riders to fire water guns at each other as they travel around...... ....Or if your evil like me, you can stand around the ride and use the water guns there to shoot the riders from behind the relative safety of a wall! We made it to the towers and were pointed in the correct direction. We headed down to the bottom of the Dark Forest to take a ride on th13teen first. As I said in my previous review, I like th13teen, I'm just not a massive fan of the coaster part at the beginning. I feel it would have been better if it had more dark ride scenes or if the ride had taken place lower to the ground perhaps taking advantage of the terrain and the close proximity to the trees. Regardless of my thoughts it is a solid coaster ideal for families and younger riders who need a good introductory coaster. We arrived at the baggage hold where we were greeted by Ian. Ian took the time to talk to us both before and after the ride and was very careful with peoples belongings. A credit to the Th13teen team! Congratulations Ian! You are the first star member of this review. After handing over our bags we headed towards the load area. I paused at the top of the stairs for a few moments to monitor the new safety procedures that had been implemented. It seemed very clear. The restraints were checked thoroughly, not a quick tap on each lap bar as is common in other parks, these were physically lifted, and in some cases pushed down if there was a large gap between riders and the lap bar. Operators were giving very clear hand signals when they were holding down the dispatch buttons. The staff member in the control room was very alert and was monitoring all activities with eyes like a hawk. I noticed one re-check of lap bars on one train as a guest seemed to be worried. The staff were courteous about the situation and took the time to go and check it to ensure the guest was reassured. This level of attention was visible across the board on all of there rides. SAFETY HERE REALLY IS PARAMOUNT. I'm not claiming for one minute that it wasn't before, what I am saying is that they have really upped there game and are striving to restore guest confidence in there rides and operations. The other thing I noticed was the massive gap left between trains. When one train was in the load area, the next train appeared to be held at the track switch. That is a massive section of track with drive tyres pretty much all the way along it. Overall, Th13teen ran like a dream, very smooth throughout. The ride was in good condition and the trains well looked after. The Th13teen team were working very well together and were very clear with instructions. Next on the agenda was Rita, sadly it was suffering from technical difficulties. Unfortunately I didn't get this member of staff's name, but they were very polite to guests explaining the situation. I am still amazed how many people are playing on this though, at one point nobody would have bothered about a ride going 101, but now, people are broadcasting loudly that it clearly isn't safe and that it's going to cause an accident. WHY WORLD!! WHY!!! WHY CAN'T THESE PEOPLE BE EDUCATED!!! We shall return to ride you later Rita. "sniggers" Hex was next. I am a fan of hex. I think it is a well executed dark ride and makes good use of a section of the towers. For those that don't know. Hex is a Vekoma Madhouse that gives the illusion that you are spinning round the walls and sitting on the ceiling all from the comfort of a bench. Very clever illusion. A definite must see. Due to the low light levels inside and not wanting to ruin the experience for everybody else I haven't taken any photos inside the attraction itself. Staff were alert throughout and very clear with instructions in the vault about raising hands for the lap bars to go down. The attraction was very well kept with all effects working including dried ice from the tree itself. No complaints on maintenance and operations here. We took a trip over to Willy Wonka's Factory to see what amazing sweets he was cooking up. Inside his factory is a MACK water ride that is a shortened version of the original ToyLand Tours Ride. This is not Alton Towers' greatest dark ride offering in the park, but is is good for young kids. When I arrived they were cycling empty boats. Saw 4-5 go through the load dock empty. Not sure if they were removing a boat or adding another but it did seem a little odd. Either way, they opened the gates and we boarded for the short trip around the factory. After the boat tour there is a small trip in one of Mr Wonka's great glass elevators. This is a room with all around projection and a floor that shakes and judders with the animation on screen. A very nice effect, but it could do with updating to something with a higher resolution now. I feel that this attraction has run it's course now. There are quite a few effects that do not function correctly during the boat ride section and quite a few of the ink jet prints on the walls are looking a little bit worn. If there was an attraction that was screaming for an update it would be this one. Also, we were unfortunately with a group of school kids that didn't understand the purpose of the yellow line or the instruction of wait near the doors outside the great glass elevator. There was a recording that was played a couple of times over the PA asking everybody to move forward but this fell on deaf ears. If I was to be honest, I felt there needed to be a member of staff down by the doors just keeping people at bay. This is however not a criticism of the team overall. Ice Age 4D was a new experience to me. The last time I entered this theater there was a stage show containing some plants and a dragon combining live actors and puppets with songs and dance. I didn't quite get it myself but the kids in the audience enjoyed it. The theater had clearly undergone refurbishment since my last visit. It looked immaculate. The projection was clear, the sound system well set up and it had a variety of effects. My only criticism of this attraction was that some of the effects were a little out of place. Some of the blasts of air were not necessary and deterred slightly from the overall product. A little bit of a tighten up and this would be awesome! The team working on this show certainly brightened the day however. Very funny in pointing out where the exits were and kept the kids entertained whist we were waiting for the show to start. We decided to step foot into X-sector. The home of the Smiler. I think this picture says it all. It was a really weird moment. It's not until you stand where we are now and realise just how big and how compact the smiler is. It puts it into perspective what happened. The speed that the trains come around some of those inversions. I'm not going to pretend for one second that what happened wasn't tragic. It's impossible to disagree. What was really weird...... Silence.... It was like I was the only person there. I was surprised that nobody was stood at the fences peering in to try and see something. Anything. I was surprised to see nobody bothering the member of staff stood out in front of the attraction. Everybody was over near Oblivion and Enterprise as if nothing had happened. For that one moment I almost had an ounce of faith in humanity restored. There was nobody trying to find the next "big" news. It was really weird. I don't think I have realised how much of an effect the Smiler had on the X-Sector, with it's LED displays on and it's theme tune playing and the roar of the trains racing by, it really brings energy to the area. But, there it is, just sat motionless. All it's branding removed. Trains sat idle in the load area. As I have said before in my "essays" on the Alton Towers face book page. Mine, and the theme park communities hearts go out to all that were injured on that day. It is an incredible shock that has been felt by many on all sides of the table. As I have said many times already, I feel that Alton Towers and Merlin, have dealt with the situation in the best way that they can. They have been very open and very honest. I don't think people could ask for any more from them with the cards that have been dealt. If anybody is hoping to see more about the smiler in this review then you can stop reading now. There is nothing more to add or say until the HSE investigation comes out. Until that time let us wait with baited breath. Oblivion was our next ride. It was the first attraction we went on in X-sector and I was intrigued to see how they were running it. We queued for approximately 20 minutes. Again, like th13teen, I waited and observed the team loading and dispatching. They were a well oiled machine, checking both restraints and seat belts thoroughly. Also like th13teen there was a massive gap between each train. Alton Towers really are being careful and this shows. The only downside to this is they appeared to be only loading a single train at one time. Oblivion is equipped to be able to load two trains at the same time. The ride then dispatches one straight up the lift hill and holds the other at the bottom until the first has cleared the top of the chain lift and connects with the conveyor at the top that pulls it round to the vertical drop. Today however they were only allowing one in the load area. Unloading. Loading and the dispatching. Allowing another train to come into unload. I understand entirely why they are doing this, but I can see it wreaking havoc on capacity and queue times when the park gets busier. I really hope this is not a permanent thing. This is not a criticism of there operations. I want to praise them on these decisions to make guests feel comfortable. It cannot be easy on operations to deal with lengthy queue times with limited loads. The trouble is at the minute, Alton Towers are damned either way. If they run trains in dual load and there is even a slight chance that two bump into each other, (even though this community knows the chances of that happening are almost non existent with the block sectioning and computer systems in place during normal operation), the media will be all over them like a rash. If they load only one train at a time during peak weeks over summer then the guests will be complaining about the long wait times. Especially when people start buying fast track tickets. I really hope all this settles down I really do! On a lighter note, Oblivion was also running very well. Trains were all in good condition, A little bit of wear cosmetically to some of the restraints and fronts of the trains, but nothing a little bit of paint or a clean can't sort. They did seem to have one train in maintenance and it looked to be in the process of being refurbished. The team were very efficient and also friendly. Another credit to Alton Towers. I'm sure you can work out where I am from this picture. I was surprised to see this ride had the shortest queue in the park considering this had only just re-opened along with the X-Sector. It was mid day when we arrived here, when the park was at it's busiest. The staff were very quick at loading, and again extremely thorough with the restraints. I would like to highlight another star performer here. Eve was very efficient with loading and helped guests put there bags in the storage compartments to help speed up the dispatches. This entire team was brilliant and worked well together. Dispatches were quick and well performed. This ride was a little rougher than I remember! Still masses of fun though. I decided to take a wander into CBeebies land as it was under construction last time I visited. I must say I was impressed with the finish and the quality. This land is perfect for the little ones. It has a good set of little track based rides and a decent size coaster. This was the busiest area of the park. I saw nothing but smiling little kids here. All having a brilliant day out with family. The staff in this are were also very switched on and were engaging with the kids all the time. It really did make for a nice atmosphere. Well done CBeebies staff! This is the family coaster in CBeebies land. The Octonauts coaster was unfortunately out of action at the time I took this photo. Oddly there was zero panic and nobody screaming and leaving the park due to this ride going down. Sometimes I really do wonder where the tabloids get there stories from! And for some reason people buy it! After a quick bite to eat we cut through mutiny bay and headed into Katanga Canyon, home of the river rapids and the flume. Due to a limited time schedule, (and the fact I have a thing about getting being wet all day). It always amuses me watching people reactions on rapids rides. They know they are going to get wet but always try and avoid it. Your going to get wet! Still amusing to watch! The rapids ride and the flume always seem popular! We took a quick spin on the Runaway Mine train. This is another attraction that is always popular! It is a great family ride and is quite thrilling. I couldn't read his name badge from the load area, but the staff member in the control room with the Australian accent was funny! Also very alert. He realised that one restraint hadn't been checked as somebody had been seated late. He directed the loaders to them quickly and allowed it to be checked. You are another Star Performer our mystery man! Choo Choo! This is becoming an Alton Towers catchphrase now! We arrived in Gloomy Wood to have a shot at Duel. Duel is a shooting gallery dark ride with ride vehicles and track by MACK rides. I really like this attraction. It is great fun, especially with a group of people trying to beat each others scores. We stopped to meet somebody who was riding Ripsaw, as we watched we witnessed someone who wasn't having the best day ever. In fact said person might have eaten lunch a little too close to his adventure on Ripsaw and might have had a slight protein spill......... This leads me on to the next photo.. Don't panic! I wouldn't show you anything grim. Luke here, wins a Star Award! He certainly has a stronger stomach than I have and had that protein spill sorted in minutes! Well done Luke! Nemesis was running exceptionally well today. This is still arguably one of the best steel coasters in the world. This is a definite must ride for anyone attending Alton Towers. This is also the ride that I noticed fewer changes on with regards to added safety procedures. This is mostly because if how the ride was operated before the Smiler incident. Due to the length of the ride and the speed at which the train travels, the train that was dispatched last quite often waits on the brake run at the end of the ride as the next train leaves the load area. I will admit they were waiting until the train had come right to the end of the brake run and made a complete stop before dispatching the next train. Again, all checks on restraints were thorough and the team worked well. Well done Nemesis Team! Nemesis was very well maintained and ran as if it was brand new. The fiber glass shells over the running gear at the top of the trains looked brand new and the restraints were well looked after. The final ride in the forbidden Valley for us was Air. This ride was being run with two trains and both load areas open. Meaning that whilst load area A was loading and unloading, Load area B was empty as the train was going round the track. Load area A was only dispatched once the train out on the circuit was completely back in Load Area B and visa versa. Again, like Oblivion this ride had a queue. Nothing extreme, but I can imagine this being a bit of a nightmare when the crowds inevitably build back up again. As I have stated before. They are being very cautious. The Air team as always were very thorough and control were listing seat numbers that needed re-checking of restraints. The Air team has always impressed me every time I have visited Alton Towers. Well done guys! You deserve recognition! As I will never ever get bored of watching Air or other B&M flying coasters loading and unloading. It is such a feat of engineering! A genuine marvel! Yes, I am a little sad! Confession! Free of it's technical issues, Rita had re-opened. With it being the last ride I wanted to visit we headed back over the the Dark Forest. Rita was being operated in a way very similar to Nemesis. The team were again working very well together and were very efficient. The ride operated very well and has some amazing air time as you travel over the highest peak. A very good ride if not a little bit short. The star ward here goes to another Ian, who had noticed our camera in the baggage hold and had removed it so nobody else took it. Kudos to you sir! A great example of customer service! After Riding Rita, it was unfortunately time to leave the park. So it's time to recap. Alton Towers have really upped there game with regards to safety. I have never felt safer on there rides. There staff are following procedures to the letter and this is clear and very visible if you stand and watch. As I stated earlier. Alton Towers are currently between a rock and a hard place. The media are scrutinising them under a microscope, twisting every little "event" to make it sound as big and as shocking as the Smiler incident. I present to you the story that they drummed up about the Octonauts coaster breaking, causing families to be evacuated off the ride and leave the park amid safety fears. Same with the story that was announced as false by Alton Towers regarding a metal clip falling from Air. It is nothing more than scaremongering and I find this very sad. If what I witnessed with procedures today continues into the busier weeks over summer then I can imagine there being a slight backlash from the public regarding wait times for rides but I am sure the public would rather have them be over the top safe. This brings me back to what I was saying before. Alton Towers are damned if they do, and damned if they don't, and that is a real shame. The other thing to consider is that Alton Towers have a mass of people against them in the general public, these are people that are unprepared to learn as they know best. People that know the rides are 100% not safe, yet have no evidence to support there claims. This is unfortunately outside of the parks control. The maintenance teams had also clearly been working hard. Apart from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all the rides were in great shape and ran really well. The staff that we encountered during our visit were very friendly, very professional and created a great atmosphere. They really are doing Merlin Entertainments proud. I take my hat off to all of you in what is undoubtedly a very challenging time. I would encourage everyone to visit the park if they get the chance as they are currently pulling out all the stops to ensure people have a great day. 10/10 for your efforts Alton Towers. I, along with others, will be returning very soon!

Looks pretty good. Just hope the ride lives up to the hype.

I think that is the best bit rctneil. hearing the conversations when people exit. How did they do that? We definitely didn't move!

Nemesis just never seems to get old! And I like HEX just because they have used part of the towers that would have just fallen into ruin.

Thankyou Ryan! It is a park certainly worth visiting!

Flamingo Land has terrible park operations full stop. I have only ever seen them run one train on Kumali. Velocity only has one train, And mumbo jumbo is just slow at loading.

Not hard to find. Just usually combined with the fast track line.

My favorite Dark Rides have to be. Haunted Mansions/Phantom Manor, Pirates of the carribean, (all versions.) Tower of Terror in Florida, Transformers, Spiderman and Harry Potter and the forbidden Journey. Always loved Horizons aswell. Can still view it on the computer thankfully!

So how did Alton Towers do? As always there rides seem to be in an acceptable condition. Ride vehicles were tidy and seemed well looked after. The staff were friendly and not to mention efficient. The food was of an acceptable quality and value for traditional theme park fair and the park was clean and tidy. I would certainly recommend Alton Towers for anybody visiting the UK. They definitely stand in joint first place as said earlier in this review. So how did they stand in numbers? Ride Quality: Coasters: 8/10 The smiler and Nemesis definitely boost the mark up. But Th13een, Rita and Oblivion just don't cut the mustard as it were. Dark Rides: 6/10 Charlie and the chocolate factory is a good concept but looks and feels like a cheap makeover. Nemesis Sub Terra is reasonable, but HEX is still the star performer. Flat Rides: 7/10 Ripsaw and Enterprise are the two favourites. The park does have most of it's flat rides in the kid's sections of the park. Quite a few currently bieng refurbished for the new CBeebies land. Water Rides: 6/10 Although we avoided them this time round it does have a reasonable log flume and a fairly long rapids ride. Live Entertainment: 3/10 definitley an area that is lacking. There are a few entertainers out in the morning but they all disappear very quick. Efficiency: 10/10 Cannot fault them on this. Very quick at loading and dispatching. Would also like to put a note out for the Air team who were shouting out seat and row numbers from the control room to the dispatchers who were quickly checking and confirming. Very well played there! Food. 7/10 Limitied to Burgers chicken and chips. But as far as theme park food goes I cannot complain. Reasonably priced and not bad value. And there you have it. My review of Alton Towers! Any comments and suggestions for my next review are more than welcome!

Greetings and salutations Theme Park Review! After receiving an "unexpected" day off from work we decided to visit Alton Towers. Myself, Carole and Peter hadn't visited a UK park for a while and had only seen the smiler partially constructed. Richard had not seen the park since Rita had been built. So there was alot to show him. Alton Towers are a tied for the top spot of favorite theme park in the UK for me. (tied with Thorpe Park and followed closely by Legoland), as they are both starting to theme there rides to a higher standard than most. They also get a lot of the newer rides and coasters which is nice to see. So without further ado! Photos! Are we even in the right place? Well... There is a coaster section?? Ahhh! Good. Found it. It almost pains me to see only a section of it left as a monument at the front of the park.... I use the word almost as it was far more painful to ride it! Was nice to see them keep it though as it was one of there first rides! Also, we thought that a thursday, after kids had returned to school from the easter holidays, it would be quiet? How wrong we were. It was packed. Busiest I had seen it since I last visited the halloween scarefest in 2011. This was just to buy tickets, nearly 45 minutes before park opening! We were quite shocked I will be honest. Finally got tickets and heading in. Park Map looks very colorful this time round. It was quite a misty morning when we first got there and quite cold. This soon changed by around midday. We were able to get rid of the jumpers and just walk around with t-shirts on. A welcome change this year! Stepping away from weather forecasting and returning to theme parks. The Towers grounds are very well kept for such a sprawling stately home. They really do go on for miles! I really like the Towers. The crowds all seemed to be heading for the smiler over at the X-sector of the park. So always bieng a group that "breaks the mould", we decided to head over to the Dark Forest as Richard had never experienced Th13teen or Rita. Like the entrance arch to Th13teen. But then anything with wraiths/grim reapers is good in my books! Th13teen's load area. And there it goes off into the "Haunted Woods"! Good job there going as a group and not "alone" as the creepy girl in the queue keeps telling me! Lift Hill Shot for all those tyre drive enthusiasts! Th13een is very hard to get any photo's of as it is mostly out in the woods at the back. I had to put my camera into storage as there really isn't much room in the tiny Intamin trains. So rather than have it bouncing around in the footwell, I decided to stow it. The operations teams were really quite efficient at loading and dispatching trains. Congratulations to the Th13een team for that! The ride itself I still don't rate very high. (SPOILER ALERTS!!!!) The first section of the ride is very tame and ideal for families. Nothing intense and some reasonable air time over the hills. Slightly boring if you have queued expecting the extreme "Psycoaster" that they were plugging in the adverts. The vertical drop section through the floor in the crypt and reverse section are well executed, But they unfortunately do not save the ride. I honestly think they would have been better having the coaster stop in a couple of different places and having more show elements, then speeding off to the next one. But that is just my opinion. Next up was Rita. Safety Sign Noted! Rita's Load Area. I have to admit, the restraints are my favorite part about Rita. They are extremely comfortable and provide you with alot of freedom for those that like to have there arms up in the air. Something I miss on other launched coasters such as Rock 'N' Rollercoaster and Space Mountain at Disneyland Paris. The staff again were quite quick at loading. But dispatching was a tad slow. I got the feeling they were having a few issues with it at the time. A few re-checks of restraints etc. The ride itself has a decent launch but then just seems to fall flat. Nothing really much happens after that. I can only compare it with a common male issue. One quick blast...... Then it's over... It was now time to go and visit the ministry of Joy as none of us had stepped foot there yet. On Second thoughts? Maybe Not! The park just is just not open long enough to warrant waiting a 1/7th of our day for one ride..... Time to go buy one fast track I think! For those that don't know. Fast Track is Alton Towers equivalent of Fastpass. Only it doesn't come with an awesome Magic band.... It does however come with a painful pricetag of £10 per person. Extortion I feel after you have paid £48 to get through the turnstyles. I wouldn't normally pay for stuff like this. But we all wanted to try it out and had a spare few pennies lying around. Grrrrrrrrr. I can almost see a smiley face in there somewhere..... Ok, so what is this mass of metal supposed to be? According to the story, the ministry of Joy is bringing subjects in to ride the smiler and they will send you away smiling! (Even if that does turn you into a smiling zombie advocate) So the queue line has all sorts of wierd artworks and optical illusions painted on the floor outside. The internal queue then has a load of projection mapped optical illusions to try and marmamlise your mind! My criticism of the queue has to be how loud it is in the outside. The trains really do roar over your head and the music/theme tune is very loud and also very annoying after the first five minutes. If you were waiting any longer than 5 minutes outside I can imagine the smile on your face would be very quickly washed away.... The internal section of queue was also incredibly dark. I am always the first person to say that people should watch where they are putting there own feet and apply common sense, but even I nearly had a stumble on a support for the load area above as it was painted black and morphed into the handrail next to it. Moving on! The load area then had a very drastic change in color scheme and seemed like a cross between an operating theatre and Willy Wonka's TV room from the Tim Burton version. Quite bizarre. It had low hanging operating theatre type lights above the trains and white walls with big yellow framed windows where the control room is. Panoramic shot I attempted. The ride really is a twisted mass of steel. I really liked the ride and loved the layout. It does move very fast and the inversions are generally smooth apart from the exit from the cobra roll which slams you pretty hard into the seat. Also the last corkscrew drops you on your shoulders a little bit which isn't too comfortable either. But I don't think this bothers me too much. I know alot of purists will probably comment on the fact that it is really just two coasters in one as it has 2 chain lifts. Yeh, I agree with you there. But it is one complete circuit, so technically it is the worlds first 14 looping coaster. Despite all the teething problems, mechanical issues and bad press it received in the few month's after it opened, I really think Alton Towers have a winning coaster on there hands. It is definitely one of there best coasters with only nemesis posing as any real threat to it. (But then the mitch hawker poll shows how well nemesis is still doing nearly 20 years on!) Twisty goodness! Once again the efficient dispatching of vehicles. In this ride however it made it look like the two were racing. A better view of the marmaliser. A giant 5 legged monstrosity. It has a rotating LED display that shows all kinds of odd images of people smiling and thing;s that make people smile including a few of there other coasters... The five legs have a different contraption designed to adjust your senses. There is the hypnotiser which is a load of spinning optical illusions. The flasher, a bank of strobe light's which hide the on-ride photo camera. The Inoculator. Huge syringes above you that blast a cloud of mist at you. The tickler. Giant spinning brushes that you would find on a car wash over your head. And finally the giggler which again blasts a cloud of "laughing gas" towards you. All these look very interesting from the ground but are hardly visible on the coaster itself. Were Corrected! Awwww. Even the trains are smiling at you! Time for Oblivion. I like the concept of Oblivion but it does seem really dated now. If there was a ride I would remove it would be that one. Now that the smiler has appeared on the scene, Oblivion is nothing more than a distant memory. The staff seemed amazed that we were there. Not a single train was going round fully loaded. And they were not using the dual dispatch. That and it is incredibly short.... Probably my least favorite coaster in the park! Over banked turn. And the brake run. Amazingly I have just shown you the entire track in 3 photos! That's right people! TTHHRREEEEEEEE PHOTOS!!! Just before leaving the X-sector we stopped for lunch and the southern fried chicken house just near the smiler. £6.50 for a reasonable sized portion of fries, 3 pieces of boneless southern fried chicken and a drink. Not too badly priced for what is basically KFC. Next we backtracked to the towers and went to ride HEX, an indoor dark ride/walkthrough attraction. Unfortunately due to some stupid data corruption on my SD card I have no photo's! Feel free to use your imagination or jump to the next photo! The choice is yours my children! (SPOILER ALERT!) So, Hex, apparently archaeologists discovered a hidden vault behind an old book case when they were doing restoration work on Alton Towers. Inside they found an old tree Branch. Rumour has it that apparently the old Earl of Alton refused to give a coin to an old beggar on his way home and she cursed his family to die every time a tree branch fell. So he chained the first one that fell and tried to find out what supernatural forces are at work in a secret lab. Sounds like the perfect set up for a Vekoma Madhouse to me! Simple yet very effective attraction! However! Cursing his family and going to such extremes over a coin? Why didn't you just get a job? Then you could have many coins..... Or why didn't the Earl just go back and give her a coin. Would save so much time and effort with the tree. Ahhh, if only.... So, after experiencing HEX, we grabbed the cable car and headed over to the forbidden valley. It really does show you how large the gardens really are! Weather Report! Yep, Sun finally coming out over the Gardens! Here is Duel, Alton Towers' shooting gallery dark ride. Always a good laugh with a group of people. Oh, and me and Richard were tied for first place! Round two will commence! But at which shooting attraction, and which park? Let us see what the future holds! This poor guy has tried and tried to beat my score I set a few years back. I keep telling him he needs to go inside the building to have even a slight chance. Bur he insists standing outside the house! Some just don't learn! Ahhhh, Nemesis Sub Terra. Part walkthrough, part dark ride, part special effects show, part scare maze. Part of me want's to really like this attraction. It is a good attempt at an attraction. I'm just finding it very hard not to compare it as a knock off alien encounter attempt. (may it rest in peace), combine that with a very small drop tower. And why not throw in the egg's from Ridley Scott's Alien whilst your at it. It has a great concept just combine it with the rediculous over use of High pressure air and loud noises and you have a mess of an attraction. Putting the "compare with disney head" aside, I think it is a reasonable attraction. And the staff do get into there military roles as well which adds to the humour. Anybody tell me what ride this is? That's absoloutely right! It's Walt Disney's Academy award winning Mary Poppins. Starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.... Better hold on to them purses and wallet's folks, this doesn't look like a very good neighbourhood... In fact it looks a lot like the underworld from such films as the public enemy and.... Oh Sorry. Wrong attraction, Wrong Park, Wrong continent. It is however Nemesis! #8 on Mitch Hawkers steel coaster poll last year. Has great pacing and speeds. And is quite close to the ground making it feel so much faster. I rate this coaster very highly. It also has no trim brakes in the middle which just makes it feel like it is full on from beginning to end! B&M really hit the spot with this beauty! For a 20 year old coaster it really does run very smoothly! Nemesis Load Area. Unfortunately didn't get very many photo's of this one. Was too bothered about riding it! So apologies there! Another B&M construction. There first attempt at a flying coaster. Still very smooth. I do find the position to be a bit uncomfortable. I am not claustrophobic at all. Just seems to hurt my hips alot. I must be an odd shape. Ha Ha Ha! Obligatory Lift Hill Shot! Ripsaw always seems to please the crowd... Not a great fan of flat rides if I am honest.... I am more of a coaster and dark ride type. Still a smooth ride! Still to this day I could sit and watch the lift and drop mechanism/ Awesome piece of engineering! You can never have enough wheels on a train right? I really do like this coaster. One final walk down Towers Street as we head back to find the car. With the day fast drawing to a close we decided to run back to the X-sector and grab one last ride on the smiler! A good view of the hypnotiser and the tickler elements there. And so we come to a close. Group Photo is a requirement, even if the photo isn't that great!